The last of his anger died for want of energy. Marsha’s face drifted through his dreams, smiling changing, unhappy, crying. He awoke to the sound of her sobs.
“Mars? Mars? What’s the matter?” he asked as he pulled her into his arms.
“It’s – oh. Lucky, I’m sorry.”
He held her as the sobs wracked her body, willing to let her cry it out, his brain still heavy with fatigue, his thoughts dark and afraid for her – and for them. Finally she calmed down.
“Can you tell me about it?”
“I have to,” she said with a quiet sniff, “but I don’t know how to. And I don’t know what to do.”
The whine of uncertainty he heard in her voice was totally unlike her. But Lucky hesitated to ask her anything. The questions rippling through his mind were full of anger and implications he did not want to face.
Finally she whispered, “They say you can’t come.”
“What do you mean?”
“They say you can’t come any farther into the U.C.S.”
“What about your father’s promise?”
“My father – my father told them to turn you back.”
Her whisper was edged with bitterness that ate into his heart. There was nothing he could say, nothing that made any sense, nothing that would help either of them, but he had to try.
“We knew there was a chance this would happen,” he said as calmly as he could.
“I didn’t.. I trusted him. Lucky, I’m going with you.”
His hopes jumped but he dared not believe that she meant it. “Is that what you want? What you really want?”
“Dammit, Lucky, I don’t know what I want.”
“We came here so you could be reunited with your father, to keep your promise, remember?”
“But I thought – “
“You thought we could do it together. Well, we can’t.” Even as he said that, Lucky remembered their trip to Alexvieux and the doubts which had nagged at him then.
Marsha pulled herself away from him and propped herself up on one elbow. “You mean you’d leave me?” There was anger and accusation in her voice.
“I mean we don’t have a choice. Look, Mars, we busted away from Roberg to get you home. Now there’s a Uke ship waiting to take you there. I’ll be all right. And so will you. Besides, this war can’t last very long, and –“
“You don’t want me to go.”
It was not a question – it was a statement, an emotional challenge she had hurled at him. “Of course – no, that’s not true. You’re right. I don’t want you to go, because if you go with me you will be miserable, always doubting yourself, always wondering if you’d done the right thing. Don’t you see that?”
She pulled her arms around herself and lay back, staring at the overhead. Sometimes Lucky seemed like a reverse image of her father – acting the same way toward her for totally different reasons. “I don’t see that. All I see is that neither of you gives a damn about me. Neither of you cares what I think and feel about all this.”
“Then what was I just talking about?” he asked angrily. “I was just talking about how you would think and feel if you didn’t go home. Or was I just talking to the bulkheads?”
After waiting a moment for her to responde, he moved closer to her and put his arm around her waist. “Look, Mars,” he said quietly, “I’ll go along with whatever you decide. But I want you to be sure, damned sure, that you can accept the consequences of either decision. I can’t make this any easier for you. I don’t know how.” Lucky heard his own voice breaking and paused.
“I love you, lady, love you like I’ve never loved anyone else in my life. And no matter what happens, I’ll treasure these years we’ve had together.” As he rested his head on the cushion beside her, he knew he had to stop. There was nothing else he could say, nothing that would be fair to her. Yet inside he wanted to say, Yes, yes, come with me. Forget about your father and come with me.
Marsha sensed his need for her – sensed the kind of love that she had always wanted and never had before. Yet there had to be more to it than that. Deep in her heart she was torn in two directions. “Make love to me, Lucky,” she whispered fiercely. “Make love to me now.”
Despite his efforts to slow the pace, their emotions drove them to a physical frenzy as they sought not pleasure, but a greater escape from the universe which surrounded them. When they finally lay spent and exhausted in each other’s arms, Lucky knew something had changed between them, something that would never be the same again. She was leaving not just him and their partnership, but part of herself that she could not take home with her. And he was letting her do it.
◊ ◊ ◊
The first of the observer ships exploded behind the sixth planet, close enough to the surface that it escaped detection.
The second exploded in open space after its scanners revealed that escape and evasion was impossible. The Sondak ships had it triangulated and were closing too fast. Its crewman grimaced slightly, sent the prepared message for relay back to its base, and with grim determination flicked the detonator.
For a few brief moments the night sky above Reckynop had a new star. Then it faded and was gone. The cruiser Gephardt slowed, unwilling to get too close to the radioactive debris, and immediately started tracking the largest pieces. There weren’t many. What few they managed to locate and retrieve told them nothing useful beyond what they already knew.
The Ukes had sent a neutronic missile into the Matthews system, a missile so small that it had been detected totally by accident. Why it had exploded prematurely no one could even guess, but if there were more, if the system had been seeded with such missiles, defense was going to be even more impossible than it already was.
Long after the perimeter alert was eased back to ready status, Admiral Pajandcan and Mr. Dawson sat hunched at her consoles, reexamining every detail of the defense plan, hoping to discover some clue which might give them the slightest advantage. When they finally gave up in exhaustion and turned the project over to others, they had no more hope than when they started.
If anything, Pajandcan and Dawson now believed that Reckynop and the Matthews system were even more vulnerable than all their previous assessments had indicated. When the Ukes came, they would have a field day.
10
THE EXPLOSION SHOOK THE OBSERVERS PLATFORM, and Frye gripped the safety rail with a grim smile. Had he not seen the charge himself, he never would have believed that something so small could have caused so much destruction.
Melliman stood beside him, her pale complexion flushed with a brightness that Frye thought could be either excitement or fear. “Well, AOCO, what do you think of that?”
She took a deep breath before she answered, the front of her uniform pressing against her in a very pleasing way.
“Impressive, sir but unless the delivery system is equally as small, I do not see how we will benefit from it except for use by the invasion fores.”
“Exactly, Melliman. Exactly. You saw the size of the charge which caused that. If every landing squad had two or three projectile weapons of that kind of destruction, who would be able to stop them?”
Melliman looked at him curiously. “Mobile artillery, sir?”
“Something like that. It could decimate the enemy in seconds.” He winced with perverse pleasure at the thought, knowing the prototypes were already proving their worth in the battle for Ca-Ryn system.
“And cost a lot of lives, sir.”
“Or save them. Depends on who has it, doesn’t it, Melliman?” And how you use them, he added to himself, suddenly aware of how prepared he was to use them in the most reckless way. “Weapons always depend on who controls them. Watch this.”
Regardless of whatever else Vinita’s death had done to him, it had made him more than willing to sacrifice whatever lives were necessary to accomplish his goals and get their revenge. He understood now how truly ephemeral and insignificant any one life was.
The second demonstration was
a typical landing squad of twenty-three troops, all armed with the standard lasers and blasters except for three who carried odd, long barreled rifles. They approached to within a kilometer of the target buildings, then the three new riflemen moved to the front of the squad, took up firing positions, and loosed one three-shot barrage. The nearest building disintegrated in a ferocious explosion of plasteel and rock. Again the viewer’s platform shook.
When Frye looked at her, Melliman spoke first. “How many rounds can each man carry, sir?”
“Maximum one hundred. But the squad can carry an additional two hundred for each gunner. That’s a lot of firepower.” Frye was glad he had brought Melliman along for the demonstration. For reasons he refused to explore, he enjoyed having her close to him.
“What next?” she asked.
“The shielded wall.”
The squad had moved another hundred meters closer and again arranged itself so that the gunners were in front. The shielded wall was easily forty meters high and eighty long, but after three earth-shaking volleys, it gaped, sagged, and twisted into smoking chunks of hot metal.
Frye had a brief vision of what would happen to anyone behind such a wall when it was attacked, then immediately brushed it from his mind. The only people behind such a wall would be the enemy.
“Show’s over,” he said quickly as he brushed the dust from his uniform. “Time for us to get back to work.”
“How many of these new weapons will we have in time for the invasion of Reckynop?” Melliman asked as they descended from the platform.
“Not as many as I’d like, but enough to give us one more advantage, AOCO.”
They rode in silence back to headquarters, and Frye was tempted to ask Melliman if she would like to have dinner with him. But as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he remembered Vinita, and a coldness crept through him that froze out the idea of doing anything with Melliman.
When they entered his office, Frye asked, “What is the update on the rescue of those scientists?”
Melliman went immediately to her console and coded in a request. After a moment the information came up on her screen, and she said, “They should be arriving any time now, sir.”
“And they have instructions to notify us as soon as they arrive?”
“Of course, sir.”
“What about reports from Umboolu?”
“Umboolu and Ca-Ryn systems are both now under our control, sir, as of this report,” she said tearing a pink update sheer from his imager.
Frye allowed himself a smile of pleasure and looked forward to reading the detailed reports later. “Any further messages from my daughter?” He knew there would be a delay in receiving any messages from Alexvieux, but he was impatient to hear from Lisa Cay.
“No, sir.”
“Very well, Melliman. That will be all for now.” Frye watched her leave with a hint of anger. At first he thought it was because he had not heard from Lisa Cay again, but a few moments reflection told him it was something far more nebulous than that. He really did not expect to hear anything from her until the rescue ship arrived on Alexvieux. So what was it?
Melliman again.
The answer popped into his thoughts followed by a confused wash of emotions. It took all his concentration to push his personal feelings down and look for a rational reason for his constant reaction to Melliman.
Then he saw it and felt like a fool for not understanding it sooner. In his mind’s eye two images crossed and merged, one of a very young Vinita in the uniform of the home guard, and one of Melliman the day she had first reported to him for duty. It wasn’t a physical resemblance between them which linked the images as much as a similar military bearing.
Oh, Vinita had been so correct and proper in her uniform, so exact in the way she wore it and in her reaction to him.
Frye remembered telling Vinita years later that Melliman had reminded him of her that first day, Vinita had laughed, saying that it was Melliman’s youth and uniform which attracted him. But it had been more than that, and Frye had buried his reaction under his love for Vinita and laughed with her.
Now it all made sense. Now he understood what it was which angered him so unexpectedly about Melliman’s presence. And maybe now he could come to terms with those reactions. If not, then Melliman would have to go.
Lisa Cay could take her place. They’d make a tremendous team, father and daughter. He knew that without any evidence to support it. Yes, a tremendous team.
“Sir?” Melliman’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
“What is it?”
“Marshall Judoff is here to see you, sir?”
Judoff? What did she want? “Send her in, Melliman, and don’t disturb us unless it is absolutely necessary.”
“Aye, sir.”
Judoff was through the door almost before Melliman’s voice died in the speaker. Frye rose to meet her.
“To what do I owe this honor, Marshal Judoff?”
“It is no honor, and you owe me nothing more than explanations, Commander Charltos,” she said, taking a chair before he could offer it to her. “Two of your observers in the Matthews system have disappeared.”
He wondered how she had found out, but the tone of her voice and her general attitude warned him he would have to be even more cautious than usual with her. “I know that, sha.”
“Then why wasn’t Bridgeforce informed?”
“Because Admiral Tuuneo made it plain to me that I did not have to report every daily incident in this war to –“
“Well, he didn’t make it plain to me, Commander. I want to know what happened to them and what your plans are.”
Frye knew better than to try to give her a fast answer. This woman would jump on anything he told her. “I plan to give a complete report to Bridgeforce tomorrow,” he said quietly. “However, since you are here, I will be glad to tell you what little we know. Apparently two of the observer ships were discovered during some routine drill Reckynop’s defense forces were going through. Per our plan they self-destructed.”
“But that’s terrible,” Judoff said.
Her voice range false in his ear, and Frye wondered what the real purpose of her visit was. “A necessary precaution, sha. If Reckynop’s forces had managed to capture one of those ships, it would have been far more terrible. As it is, we still have eighteen in place, and another twenty which we will insert shortly before the attack begins.”
“At what expense, Commander?”
Frye wasn’t sure what she meant and hesitated.
“I asked you a question, Commander. What will it cost us to protect those observers in place and insert twenty new ones?”
“We’re not protecting them,” Frye said simply. “The insertion of the others will involve one –“
“Not protecting them? Isn’t that rather foolish, Commander?”
“Begging your pardon, sha, but I do not understand what this is all about. Perhaps you should save your questions for the Bridgeforce meeting tomorrow.”
Judoff stood with a sneer on her face. “And perhaps you should have some better answers by then, Charltos. Good day.”
Frye watched her go with a serious sense of confusion. Whatever her intent had been, he had missed it completely. But she had given him a valuable suggestion. He would be better prepared for her questions tomorrow.
“Melliman,” he said into his lapelcom, “I’m taking you to dinner.”
“Sir?”
“Then we’re coming back here and working, until dawn if necessary, to get ready for Bridgeforce.”
“Yes, sir.”
If there was pleasure in her voice, Frye couldn’t hear it. His mind had already jumped ahead to what they would have to do. He wasn’t even surprised that he had invited her to dinner. Wouldn’t hurt to be nice to her for the little while she had remaining on his staff. Might even find out who else she would like to work for.
◊ ◊ ◊
As Admiral Josiah Gilbert rose to speak before the Joint Chiefs, h
e was pleased to see Mica smiling at him from behind Commander Rochomon.
Duty and circumstances had kept them from sharing any more than a few brief vidcom conversations during the three days he had been down on Nordeen. But if everything worked as planned, they would have at least part of this evening together. He quickly put the thought of that pleasure aside and began his presentation.
“At Admiral Stonefield’s request, I have prepared what I believe will be the best possible defense of the Matthews system, one which my staff and I hope will catch the Ukes by surprise and give us the valuable time we need to bring our fleets back up to fighting strength.”
“Pardon me, Admiral,” General Mari said from the far end of the table, “but would you tell us first why you think the Matthews system should be defended at all? There are some of us who are not sure that it should be defended, much less that it can be.”
Mica was surprised by Mari’s question, but from the look on her father’s face, apparently he was prepared for it.
“Certainly, General – with the group’s permission, of course.” Affirmative nods around the table gave him the impression that they were all interested in his views, and Gilbert allowed himself a small smile before continuing.
“Firstly, if we successfully defend the Matthews system while at the same time rendering a serious blow to the Uke forces, then we will not only gain much needed time to rejuvenate our fleet as I mentioned before, but we will also gain a victory for the morale of our forces.
“Secondly, if we were to abandon the Matthews system, as I know some of my colleagues have recommended, then we would be signaling the Ukes that we are unwilling or incapable of engaging them in a serious battle.”
“What about the south polar systems?” Admiral Lindshaw asked. “Aren’t we on the verge of engaging them there?”
“Yes, it appears that way. But unless Commander Rochmon has information to the contrary, the Ukes do not have sufficient forces in the south polar sector to engage in anything more than attacks on those independent systems they have claimed as their own since the last war.”
Double Spiral War Trilogy Page 11